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GRAND RAPIDS -- Home certainly has been sweet for Justin Abdelkader so far this season.

The former Mona Shores and Michigan State standout recorded his first professional hat trick to lead the Grand Rapids Griffins past the Norfolk Admirals 6-3 at Van Andel Arena on Sunday night.

Abdelkader, who also had a goal in a 6-4 win over Hamilton on Saturday night, last had a three-goal game during Senior Night for the Spartans on Feb. 29.

"You've just got to take advantage when the puck is bouncing your way. You've got to keep shooting and putting them on net," Abdelkader said. "Sometimes the puck doesn't bounce your way, but right now it's bouncing my way.

"It's tough to maintain that all season. Obviously you're going to go through ups and downs, but when you're hot like this, you've got to keep shooting the puck and hopefully good things will happen."

The Griffins once again jumped out to an early lead in the first period only to watch their opponent rally.

Fifty seconds into the game, Abdelkader gave the Griffins a 1-0 lead after he popped a shot past Norfolk goaltender Karri Ramo.

After Grand Rapids' Darren Haydar and Norfolk's Pete Zingoni added goals, Abdelkader tallied his second with 3:21 left in the first period to give the Griffins a 3-1 lead.

But the Admirals' Juraj Simek and Brandon Segal each scored in the first two minutes of the second to tie the game at 3-3.

Grand Rapids, though, tightened its defense and held Norfolk at bay the rest of the way.

With 1:45 left in the second, Ryan Oulahen scored what proved to be the game-winner with a one-timer from inside the left circle.

Francis Pare added a goal with 4:06 left in the third, and Abdelkader sealed the win and the hat trick with an empty-netter with 12.7 seconds remaining in the game.

Abdelkader said the Griffins have to maintain the high level of play they've exhibited in the first period to prevent teams from coming back. Grand Rapids scored four times in the first nine minutes against Hamilton, but was outscored 4-2 in the final two periods.

"I don't know what it is, if we see that we're up 3-0 and we can sit back, but we just have to continue improving," Abdelkader said. "But we're a really young team, and we're going to continue to grow throughout the season."

Oulahen has been impressed with the way the Griffins have closed out games.

"I think we just kind of let the team think they're still in the game, and when it comes to that third period we come on strong again," Oulahen said. "We've been able to hang on and get the two points which is the most important thing."

Ville Leino had three assists, and Haydar added two. Daniel Larsson made 28 saves in net for the Griffins.

Coupled with their 7-3 win over Toronto on Oct. 19, the Griffins have scored at least six goals in three consecutive games for the first time.

The 26 goals they've scored through five games (4-0-1-0) also is a franchise record. The previous record was 22 in 2005-06, when the Griffins won the American Hockey League's regular season championship.

It also was the first time the Griffins played an Eastern Conference team since a 4-3 shootout win against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Jan. 13, 2007.

Grand Rapids last faced Norfolk on Feb. 7, 2003, a 3-1 Admirals win. The span of five years, eight months and 19 days between games is the largest in Grand Rapids history.

The Griffins, who didn't face any teams from the East last season, will play five this season for a total of 12 games.